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No leap second will be introduced at the end of December 2026

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Re: No leap second will be introduced at the end of December 2026

#101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In short, yes, the weather, geology, and signicantly, human movement of water via aquifer draining and dam building, as well as glaicial and ice melts, all contribute to unpredictable changes in the earths rotational period, as well as the axis of rotation. The models for this are IIRC trigonometric polynomials of fairly low order, so even if we could model the unpredictability perfectly, truncation error would limit…

2035 is the agreed drop dead date. Everybody agreed that "Leap seconds" are a sufficiently bad idea that they should be replaced by 2035. Nobody has agreed how to fix it, and "Just turn them off" isn't technically legal. However, "What if there were Leap hours instead?" is technically legal and of course those hours would happen in the very distant future (likely after our civilisation is gone) so it's functionally i…

On the subject of amusing British political legislation, should he defeat Nigel Farage in the resulting by-election Count Binface will not be able to wear his costume in Parliament; not only is business attire required in the House of Commons, it's specifically forbidden to wear a suit of armour there due to a law from the 14th century.

For those unaware, the major parties have declined to participate in the by-election triggered by Farage's resignation seeing the whole thing as a farce. As a result Farage will likely face only Count Binface, a space warrior from Sigma Six. He'd get my vote purely on the basis that he's promised to bring back Ceefax, and build at least one affordable house.

Re: No leap second will be introduced at the end of December 2026

#102
post #27

They should have a global holiday to celebrate the people who maintain time/date related code in OS kernels that keeps the world from imploding.

I like the argument that we should have 12 months that are exactly 30 days long, and then merge whatever is left into a single timeless holiday.

I thought it was 13 months exactly 4 weeks long, which takes us to exactly 364 days

Re: No leap second will be introduced at the end of December 2026

#103
This announcement is very much a nothing burger; it’s already been more or less decided that adding leap seconds just isn’t going to be a thing anymore (in our lifetime). Here’s on article from 2022: https://www.timeanddate.com/news/astronomy/end-of-leap-secon...

Re: No leap second will be introduced at the end of December 2026

#104
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The changes in Earth's rotational speed that leap seconds help account for affect the whole globe. Why shouldn't the effects be noted in the global time standard?

Same with leap days though? The point is that it's weird that we handle a day every 4 years off in a different way to a couple of second being off.

The leap day system handles the mean, the leap seconds handle the variance around the mean. The need for leap seconds is not predictable—they zero out accumulated error.

Re: No leap second will be introduced at the end of December 2026

#106
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"In other words, we want UTC noon to be within a second of mean solar noon on the prime meridian." Why? If I travel 1 mile east or west of the prime meridian, my solar noon now comes 2-3 seconds earlier/later. It's nearly impossible to have your local time match your local solar noon. For most of the population, solar noon is, on average, 30 minutes off of 12:00 noon. Plus, solar noon varies from day to day by 10-20…

Probably there are things more important than your lunch that need time to be exactly synced with sun position

For things that need much more precusion than my lunch, ±1 second probably still isn't good enough, so they need another layer of correction anyway. Given that exists, might as well push leap seconds into that layer too.

Re: No leap second will be introduced at the end of December 2026

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Farage is such an ass, the King should make him feed donkeys or something.

"Vote Count Binface and Bin the Cunt" :D There's a long tradition in the UK of having electoral candidates who don't expect to win but run because it's free publicity in a high profile race. "Count Binface" is a comedian who dresses up as a space alien whose outfit resembles well, having a Bin for a face. The serious political parties told Nigel to fuck off, if he wants to step down and then immediately contest the s…

I think it's more than publicity. Anyone can stand as a candidate, and anyone can vote for them. Money and connections and establishment and everything else don't matter, all candidates are equal on that stage. It's both weird and to be admired.

Re: No leap second will be introduced at the end of December 2026

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In short, yes, the weather, geology, and signicantly, human movement of water via aquifer draining and dam building, as well as glaicial and ice melts, all contribute to unpredictable changes in the earths rotational period, as well as the axis of rotation. The models for this are IIRC trigonometric polynomials of fairly low order, so even if we could model the unpredictability perfectly, truncation error would limit…

2035 is the agreed drop dead date. Everybody agreed that "Leap seconds" are a sufficiently bad idea that they should be replaced by 2035. Nobody has agreed how to fix it, and "Just turn them off" isn't technically legal. However, "What if there were Leap hours instead?" is technically legal and of course those hours would happen in the very distant future (likely after our civilisation is gone) so it's functionally i…

So, it's solving a real problem, why are we dropping it? I mean, why does everybody agree it's a bad solution?

Re: No leap second will be introduced at the end of December 2026

#109

As one HN comment said years ago: I feel leap seconds have always lived in the wrong abstraction layer. They should live in the same abstraction layer that does leap days and daylight savings: the time zones.

god that would be awful. Can you imagine time zones being one second off from each other. Or two or three? ah yes, india is GMT+4:30:03, where europe is GMT+0:59:58

Already a thing between UTC and TAI.

Re: No leap second will be introduced at the end of December 2026

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like the argument that we should have 12 months that are exactly 30 days long, and then merge whatever is left into a single timeless holiday.

I've often dreamed of and revisited this idea. I first started thinking of it seriously when I realized I was paying the same rent in February as in January despite a significantly shorter-than-mean (30.4375) month...! My ideal year is 12 months, each 5 weeks long, each week 6 days long. At the summer solstice, 3 intercalary days (bank holidays), at the winter solstice, 2 or 3 intercalary days depending on leap year.

Sure thing Charles-Gilbert Romme.
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